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What's a Wreck?

A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places.

Entries in Sunday Sweets
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Greetings, Wreckies. I know you've been waiting for some Avengers Sweets, and here they are! Brought to you by me, Lindsey, the least qualified person on earth to write about the Avengers. It's a movie? With superheroes? Something about a hammer? Don't hurt me.

Right then, I'll just fake it. Here we go.

One of the original Avengers, as everybody knows, was Wolf-Spider-Man.

But enough about me: let's talk about how amazing these cookies are! Smoosh your face up close to your monitor and drink in all that detail. What a shame to eat them! My favorite are Hulk's little toes. Nom.

For this next cake I consulted an expert on all things Avengers: my ten-year-old son, Blake. However, he was appalled that Thor was using a binky, and exclaimed "Thor is like, the second-manliest one of them all! They should have given the binky to Iron Man!"

[Note from Jen: I just sprained something laughing. Please thank Blake for me. And ask him who the first-manliest is.]

This cakey rocker chick is blowing my mind. I want to see a slice out of it somewhere, just to prove it's really cake! (And while you're at it, I'd like a life-sized Swedish Chef cake, too, please. BORK BORK.)

I'm digging the cartoony shape of the skyscraper, and just look at those handcrafted figures!

I want them all. Can you just make me a batch of gumpaste superheroes, Amanda? You know, for my desk? I'm not greedy; I'll just take Batman & Robin & Green Lantern & the little Superboy up there. And Spidey. And a few bags of cartoon money. And a balloon or two. But that's it.

Look how pretty she is! And check out the flower silhouettes painted on the cake tiers, and the wooden sign, and that bitty little lady bug - so many great details. But really, that handmade Tink steals the show; from her vine-wrapped hair bun to her little shoe pom-poms, she's just perfection. (Hey, would it be weird if someone commissioned a cake just for the topper? Asking for a friend.)

I'm a big fan of cake artists who use icing like paint, both because it's a rare skill and because it gives the cake a charmingly handcrafted look. This cake is entirely fondant-free, and all the dogs are hand-piped. As if that weren't enough, check out the thin black lines; don't they make it look like a 2D drawing popped off the page?

It's cakes like this that give me the baking itch all over again. Love it.

You guys know I've seen a lot of great cakes, so when I tell you this next one made me gasp with delight, you better believe it's something special.

I'm in awe of this cake's construction. It's not easy to make a cake look like it's falling apart without it *actually* falling apart! I'd love to see the interior supports & in-process photos - talk about an engineering feat!

Here's a screen grab of the scene in question, so you can compare:

Pretty bang on, right? I guess you could call this the first Wreck Sweet! (Sweet Wreck?)

I've seen a lot of amazing Yoda cakes lately, but this one is especially charming with its custom cake board and Yoda's great expression and, of course, THOSE EARS. (I would very much like to nom one.)

My faithful Wrecky Minion Julianne has a newborn baby girl in the house, and this past week she's let me and John come over to take pictures of little Ellie for fun. We then got a little carried away buying Ellie cutesy little headbands and bows and dresses and even sewing her a ruffly diaper cover, and I blame my next Sweet on all of that over-the-top baby cuteness:

This beauty has a real Tim Burton vibe to it, and that winged wrench topper looks so much like a bat that it took me a few seconds to realize what it was!

I like how this cake just gets better and better and more detailed the further you move down the tiers. Check out the crazy-cool clock face detail on the purple "suede" tier:

And look at the tiny screwheads or rivets on the bottom lantern tier! Plus that airbrushed glow is easily my favorite part of the whole cake; it's so vivid, and the scrollwork and spider really "pop" against it. Just beautiful.

Hope you enjoyed meandering through my favorite Sweets this week, guys! Next Sunday I think I'll do an Avengers post, so if you bakers out there have a cake you'd like us to consider featuring, please send it to Sunday Sweets [at] Cake Wrecks [dot] com!